This is the easiest, best pizza dough recipe. With just 6 ingredients and no fancy flours required (I’ve included instructions for using all-purpose or bread flour), this pizza crust requires just one bowl (no stand mixer, though you can use one if you’d like), about 3 seconds of kneading, and just 30 minutes to rise.
If you’re uncomfortable working with yeast or making your own pizza dough at home, I’ll walk you through every step of the process in my video just below the recipe. You’ve got this!
It’s a little silly how excited I am to share this recipe with you today. It’s pizza dough, not exactly glamorous or sexy and it was honestly pretty boring to photograph (how do you make a ball of dough look fun and appealing in pictures, please tell me!).
But as someone who has struggled with baking even the most simple recipes with yeast, perfecting this pizza dough was definitely a triumph for me and I’m really happy to announce that there’s nothing to be afraid of! Yeast baking isn’t all that scary or hard, and you too can make your own super simple pizza crust at home in a matter of minutes, no fancy ingredients required.
I kept this pizza dough recipe as simple and approachable as possible. It’s made with all-purpose flour (and notes on how to substitute that flour, in case you want to get fancy 😉), no stand mixer needed, and only the most minimal amount of kneading required.
Below I’ve tried to ask some of the most frequently asked questions about making your own pizza dough. Let’s get to it.
What is the best flour for making homemade pizza dough?
Many pizza-making-pros will likely argue that bread flour is best for making homemade pizza. However, I rarely keep any flours in my pantry that are more exotic than all-purpose flour, so when I was working on this recipe I first and foremost made sure that it worked perfectly with regular old all-purpose flour.
I did make a point to test this recipe (repeatedly, we ate a lot of pizza last week) with bread flour and it works very well when made that way, too. I find that the biggest difference is that using bread flour gives my pizza dough a crispier crust, while the all purpose flour yields a softer one.
Can I flavor my Pizza Dough?
Pizza dough on its own is obviously important as a base for your favorite pizza, but it’s also kind of… bland. Shockingly, something made primarily of flour and water isn’t super exciting to the taste buds, and most of the flavor will come from whatever toppings you add.
I do usually try to spice up my crust just a bit, though, by adding a dash of garlic powder (usually around a ¼ teaspoon) and sometimes dried basil leaves (dried oregano could also work for you but I absolutely loathe oregano) into the dough before you add your oil and water.
How do you stretch out pizza dough?
You can use a rolling pin or you can use your hands. If you’re especially skilled, you can toss it up in the air and spin your dough like an Italian pizza artist, but I definitely lack the ability to tell you how to do that one.
I prefer to use a rolling pin and roll the dough out into a circle (or more like an amoeba-shape, since I can’t roll a perfect circle to save my life). Alternatively you can use your hands to flatten and stretch the dough until it reaches the desired width.
Then use your hands to pinch the edges to make a crust or fold over the edges (I always fold mine over because it gives me a thicker crust, which I love), brush the entire surface of the pizza generously with olive oil, and then use a fork to poke holes over the center of the dough to prevent any bubbles from forming while it bakes.
How do you make Homemade Pizza?
You can use this pizza dough recipe to make your own homemade pizza using any toppings you’d like (I love making Margherita pizza and have even made a BBQ chicken version using my BBQ pulled chicken).
I included instructions in the recipe, but once you’ve prepared your pizza dough, just add your favorite toppings and bake in a 425F oven for about 15 minutes (you may need longer if you add a lot of toppings). Do make sure you let your oven preheat properly and use an oven thermometer as possible, my oven takes a while to reach that temperature and usually “tells” me it’s ready when it’s not even close.
OK, are you guys sick of hearing about my beloved pizza dough recipe yet? In case you just can’t get enough, I also made a video just below that you can watch so you can see exactly how your dough should look in every step.
How to Make Homemade Pizza Dough
If you enjoy watching these videos, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be notified every time I publish a video!
The Best Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 2-2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour OR bread flour¹ divided (250-295g)
- 1 packet instant yeast² (2 ¼ teaspoon)
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅛-¼ teaspoon garlic powder and/or dried basil leaves optional
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil + additional
- ¾ cup warm water³ (175ml)
Instructions
- Combine 1 cup (125g) of flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. If desired, add garlic powder and dried basil at this point as well.
- Add olive oil and warm water and use a wooden spoon to stir well very well.
- Gradually add another 1 cup (125g) of flour. Add any additional flour as needed (I've found that sometimes I need as much as an additional ⅓ cup), stirring until the dough is forming into a cohesive, elastic ball and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl (see video above recipe for visual cue). The dough will still be slightly sticky but still should be manageable with your hands.
- Drizzle a separate, large, clean bowl generously with olive oil and use a pastry brush to brush up the sides of the bowl.
- Lightly dust your hands with flour and form your pizza dough into a round ball and transfer to your olive oil-brushed bowl. Use your hands to roll the pizza dough along the inside of the bowl until it is coated in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place.
- Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. If you intend to bake this dough into a pizza, I also recommend preheating your oven to 425F (215C) at this point so that it will have reached temperature once your pizza is ready to bake.
- Once the dough has risen, use your hands to gently deflate it and transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth (about 3-5 times).
- Use either your hands or a rolling pin to work the dough into 12" circle.
- Transfer dough to a parchment paper lined pizza pan and either pinch the edges or fold them over to form a crust.
- Drizzle additional olive oil (about a Tablespoon) over the top of the pizza and use your pastry brush to brush the entire surface of the pizza (including the crust) with olive oil.
- Use a fork to poke holes all over the center of the pizza to keep the dough from bubbling up in the oven.
- Add desired toppings (see the notes for a link to my favorite, 5-minute pizza sauce recipe!) and bake in a 425F (215C) preheated oven for 13-15 minutes or until toppings are golden brown. Slice and serve.
Notes
Making in Advance:
To make in advance, let the dough rise covered at room temperature as indicated in the recipe, then deflate it, wrap it tightly so it doesn't dry out, and store in the refrigerator for up to several days or it will freeze for up to a month. Top your pizza off with my favorite, easy, homemade pizza sauce!Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Jessica Rodriguez
Loved the recipe. My 8 year old son and I made it today. We had a zoom pizza party and decided to use this recipe and it came out amazing. My son loves pizza and he was so exited to make it on his own with my assistance of course 😁. Thanks!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Jessica! 🙂
Karen
Pizza dough in half an hour that is delicious, YUM! Thank you 😊
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Karen! 🙂
Jenn
I now have been making our own pizzas every weekend. The grandkids have so much fun making their own pizza. I will say I chose to use my stand mixer, also followed the instructions on the yeast packet using the water required for this recipe. It has always turned out wonderful, thank you
Sam
That is so awesome! I’m so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Jenn! 🙂
Luisana
Hi!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I made it yesterday, an it was fabulous!!!! The only change I made is that half the flour was Whole Wheat Flour. Thank you!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Luisana! 🙂
Jonathan
Could you list weight for all the ingredients please? I’m so bad ay measuring only use the scale! Thanks
Sam
Hi Jonathan! All ingredients have weight measurements listed after each ingredient 🙂
Espie
Hi Sam,
Have you tried combining all-purpose flour and bread flour?
Thanks,
Espie
Sam
Hi Espie! I have not tried using bread flour here.
Dominic Palumbo
Sam, thank you for your recipe here, it looks like a good one! However, I ran into an issue trying it for the first time; the dough really didn’t rise and it wasn’t elastic and smooth. It was actually splitting apart when I went to stretch it.
Do you think it could be old AP flour? I mean the bag was never opened but it had been stored for over 5 years, yes 5 years! This is the first time I’ve tried making dough in a long time and just grabbed some quickly to try it.
Thank you for any help you could throw my way!
Dominic
Sam
O no! I’m so sorry this happened. The dough not rising sounds like it could be a yeast problem. Is it possible your yeast was expired? I think the quality of your flour was probably degraded since it was so old and that could have caused your issue. 🙁
Dominic Palumbo
I just checked the yeast (Fleischmanns rapid rise) with a 2022 expiration, so it has to be the flour. Like I said it wasn’t smooth and elastic. I went out and bought new flour to give it a try again, so we’ll see what happens. Thanks so much!
Emily
I’ve tried a lot of pizza dough recipes and this one works the best for me! I’m not sure what’s so different about this one from others, but it really is the best, IMO.
I finally figured out, however, that splitting the dough in half and making two pizzas works best for me…it makes two perfectly thin crust pizzas, rather than one thicker pizza.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoy it so much, Emily! 🙂
Marcy
I bake weekly son found this recipe easy to do. I added herbs to the dough so it was very tasty. I made my own sauce and it turned out beautifully, Thanks for sharing.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Marcy! 🙂
DJ
The thing that I hate about recipes like this. It says add 1 cup of flower and the the rest of the ingredients. So I guess it’s 1 cup of everything then.
Sam
Hi DJ! Unfortunately this recipe may be too advanced for you.
Tricia
WE use this recipe
all the time. Love it! I recommend doing the water and yeast first and we now use pizza yeast but works with regular as well. Rises faster with pizza yeast. I like to put it in the warm sun to rise. It more than doubles! This is my go to after a long day at work, and fun to create different shapes and toppings. Thank you!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy it so much, Tricia! 🙂
Lara
Hi there –
I’m really excited to make this as I always buy pre-prepared dough but Amazon Fresh has run out of it! I have a question – I have heard that you should bake the crust FIRST for about 10-15 minutes in a 425 oven and THEN put the sauce and toppings on and then bake for 15 minutes – in fact I have heard this said nearly everywhere – so what is your opinion on this?
Thanks
Sam
Hi Lara! It really depends how you like your crust. I personally don’t ever do it and it bakes just fine. Some people like a crispier crust, or they plan to put a lot of toppings on it. Pre-baking the crust will help the crust bake all the way through if you plan to use a lot of topping. 🙂
Cyndi Bitto
This works great for me! I make bread often, and so making the dough was easier than I thought.( somehow I thought it was different, but it’s not really. Much better than the packaged dough, or even the local bakery’s version.
I like to not only fold the edges in, but to twist them as I go around. This makes it fancy looking. Thanks for this recipe! <3
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed it so much, Cyndi! 🙂
SnoNutz
Get a baking steel or a corderite stone (cast iron works too), put it in a cold oven set the oven as high as it will go for at least 30 minutes, launch the Pizza on the cooking surface, after a minute or two lift it up and check the bottom for zebra Charing, and give it a quarter turn, then 3 more. That’s all, and it should be great every time.
Edmund Jonas Bitinas
I use my meat thermometer to got the faucet water temp in the 105-110F range. I agree with doing the yeast-water-sugar first to be sure it works.
Rachel
I think I need to adjust my oven temperature. The middle turned out underdone. Baking it for longer just burned the edges. I used a flat cookie sheet, not a pizza stone. (I also have an over thermometer, and used a scale to measure ingredients, so it’s not that).
Overall, pretty good, will make again
Jaime
My Family And I have a pizza place nearby And The pizza is amazing, so not trying to replicate that pizza, but I use The recipe dough to make chicken rolls, the results were a success!! Everyone enjoyed it, is 100 times superior than the commercial dough that you buy at the supermarket. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Jaime! 🙂
Betty Baxter
I try your recipe and all my children love it !!! I will make it for my children birthday party or family gathering. Thank you do much Sam !! 🥳
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Betty! 🙂